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Convergence in Muslim Political Thought: the contribution of Imam Khomeini

lecture by
Dr Kalim Siddiqui,
presented at the 1st Imam Khomeini Memorial Lecture, Muslim Institute, 12 May 1990.

Dr Kalim Siddiqui (1931-1996) was Director of the Muslim Institute, London, and one of the leading thinkers of the global Islamic movement. He also founded and led the Muslim Parliament of Great Britain, inaugurated in 1992
.

[Courtesy: Institute of Contemporary Islamic Thought]

Listen (real audio, 44 min 20sec)
Download (shift-click) (2.9Mb)
" Once, after the hijrah to Madinah, Islam had undergone transition to Statehood, the spread of Islam to the peninsula was rapid and total. Islam is incomplete without the Islamic State; there is no room for dispute on this point ."

" The point that is obscured in modern apologetic literature of Islam and neatly sidestepped by the orientalists is that Islam is not only a message, Islam is also a method. Some of the islamic parties that emerged during the colonial period also failed to grasp this essential point. They understood Islam within the framework of european style social democracy. For them the Islamic state was only a slightly updated islamized version of the post colonial nation state, it only required them to win an election and come to power. These Islamic political parties did not realise that there was a colonial legacy to be undone and dismantled. In their simplistic thinking the Islamic state of their conception would be built on the secular and nationalist foundations of the post colonial independent state. What is undoubtedly true is that some of these political parties had perhaps unwittingly borrowed many of their ideas from sources outside Islam."

" There have always existed ulema of all schools of thought in Islam who were willing and able to eliminate the error and bind the Ummah together. The number of the so called ulema committed to fithna and permanent divisions in the Ummah has always been small though vocal because they have also enjoyed the political patronage of the ruler bent upon transforming error into long term even permanent deviation, this deviation began with the Bani Umaiyya and continues today under the saudi regime."

" It is probably no exaggeration to say that Imam Khomeini corrected the political deviation of the entire ummah that began with the advent of umayad rule in terms of the legitimacy of the leadership of the Islamic State Imam Khomeini restored the situation as it existed during the rule of Ali ibn Abi Talib"

Other Resources

The paper the lecture was based on is available at the ICIT website:
"Processes of error, deviation, correction and convergence in Muslim political thought"

For more information on the valuable contribution the late Dr. Kalim Siddiqui has made to Islam, please visit:
http://www.islamicthought.org/ks-home.html